APA Rejects "Reparative Therapy" for Gays

"Gay To Straight" Reparative Therapy Repudiated by American Psychological Association

The American Psychological Association declared Wednesday that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy or other treatments.

In a resolution adopted on a 125-to-4 vote by the APA's governing council, and in a comprehensive report based on two years of research, the 150,000-member association put itself firmly on record in opposition of so-called "reparative therapy" which seeks to change sexual orientation.

No solid evidence exists that such change is likely, says the report, and some research suggests that efforts to produce change could be harmful, inducing depression and suicidal tendencies.

The APA had criticized reparative therapy in the past, but a six-member task force added weight to this position by examining 83 studies on sexual orientation change conducted since 1960. Its comprehensive report was endorsed by the APA's governing council in Toronto, where the association's annual meeting is being held this weekend.

Iran's Hidden History

Check out this interesting article by Dough Ireland on GCN on Iran's Hidden History

He reviews a forthcoming book by Janet Afary on "Sexual Politics in Modern Iran" and includes some extensive information on same-sex relationships in Iran, the country who's president recently said had no homosexuals in it!

Today in History: The Invention of "Homosexuality"

One hundred and forty years ago today, on May 6, 1868, the word "homosexuality" was coined by Hungarian gay-rights advocate Karl-Maria Kertbeny in a letter he wrote to the German gay-rights advocate Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (who had coined the term "urning" to refer to a "male-bodied person with a female psyche," who is sexually attracted to men).

Read the history of the invention of “homosexuality” on Jim Burroway’s Box Turtle Bulletin

In the words of historian/philosopher Michel Foucault:
"Homosexuality appeared as one of the forms of sexuality when it was transposed from the practice of sodomy onto a kind of interior androgyny, a hermaphrodism of the soul. THE SODOMITE HAD BEEN A TEMPORARY ABERRATION; THE HOMOSEXUAL WAS NOW A SPECIES." (History of Sexuality, Vol. 1)

Gay By Choice? The Politics of Sexual Identity

Good article by Gary Greenberg at Mother Jones, Gay By Choice? the Science of Sexual Identity He asks, "If science proves sexual orientation is more fluid than we've been led to believe, can homosexuality still be a protected right?" This question is so obviously silly to me! Why do people believe that we can only have civil rights if we are "born" gay and "cannot change" our sexual orientation? Where did this argument that rights are based on biolovy come from? Our Constitutional rights are not based on biology, they are based on the principle that American citizens have the freedom to CHOOSE their identity, whether religious, political or sexual! It has NOTHING to do with biology! I've been making this argument for years now, and we are still arguing in the dark ages!

Of course people can and should be free to CHOOSE to be gay (or straight)!

See:
Choosing the Gay Option
Can Straight People Change?
Queer By Choice